7th annual Community Health Fair set for Oct. 12

"Creating a Healthier Community", that's what it's all about, agree the members of the local C.H.A.T. team. (Community Health Awareness Team)

Every year the C.H.A.T. team starts meeting weekly come mid summer, with the goal of organizing a community health fair that will exceed the services offered at the health fair the prior year. With a goal like that you'll want to mark the date of the health fair on your calendar right now.

The 7th annual community health fair will be held Tuesday, Oct. 12 from 7:30 a.m. to noon, at the Carbon County Fairgrounds Events Center. This is a great opportunity to take care of many of those much needed health screenings and immunizations at little or no cost to you.

Everyone is always welcome and encouraged to come. This year's fair events will begin at 7:30 a.m. with free blood sugar testing. Also free are skin exams performed by Dr. Karen Radley and Donna Mathis from 8 to 9 a.m. Our new family practice physician, Dr Matt Brady, who has a fellowship in obstetrics, will be offering free breast exams from 9 to 11 a.m. There will be a free women's urinary health seminar from 10 a.m. to noon with various speakers and time allowed for questions and answers. More booths than ever before will be available for you to browse and learn. Jerri Timothy will be doing a stretching demonstration at 10 a.m. Information on Gluten-free diets, and other nutritional information will also be available, along with many others.

Flu shots for Seasonal Influenza (which includes H1N1 virus this year) will be available for $25 and most insurance companies are accepted. Also offered at a very reduced rate of only $10, will be a fasting cholesterol and diabetes screening. A 12 hour fast is required for this test.

There will be many vendor booths with information about the services they offer. Lunch will be served at the new senior citizen center at 12:30 p.m. with guest speaker Casey Queset speaking on general medicare information, for a cost of $6.50 a plate. You will need to RSVP to Sherry King at 637-4800 ex 3510 or Linda Beal at 613-8887.

New this year at the health fair will be a safe drug drop off location. This is a great opportunity to clean out your medicine cabinet and dispose properly of those un-wanted drugs. Opportunities like this are offered to protect our drinking water supply. Please don't flush unwanted drugs into our water supplies. For your convenience you can drive up to the safe location and drop off your drugs. Please leave drugs in the original containers. This will make sorting for disposal much easier.

At the health fair, there will also be a pharmacist available to do a "Brown Bag" of medicines. Bring a list of your meds or the meds with you and a pharmacist will review them to see if you will get any drug interactions.

Every year any proceeds collected from the health fair are donated to our local food bank. We are asking that you bring a generous food donation to the health fair with you. A trailer will be located at the entrance for easy drop off. Our local food bank is supporting many area families at this time and your donation will be greatly appreciated.

"Creating a Healthier Community"...that's our goal, and when the whole community gets involved, the sky is the limit!